Scammers

[Charlie Bravo_imp]

I put my other bike, the BMW, on CycleTrader yesterday, and have already had two scammers contact me. They both exhibited classic scammer behavior, i.e., "I can't come see the bike because...military deployed, work commitments, etc., and they both wanted to use a complicated procedure to pay for and take possession of the bike. I shot them both down in flames, but I hope someone really wants to buy a great bike.

 

[decarmine_imp]

I put my other bike, the BMW, on CycleTrader yesterday, and have already had two scammers contact me. They both exhibited classic scammer behavior, i.e., "I can't come see the bike because...military deployed, work commitments, etc., and they both wanted to use a complicated procedure to pay for and take possession of the bike. I shot them both down in flames, but I hope someone really wants to buy a great bike.

...and then you'll get the ones who insist on a "carfax" vehicle history report, but only through a company they recommend.

"My brother bought a bike where..." and a dozen other reasons why the report *must* come from a *specific* (not carfax) company. See web site below...

Steering clear of vehicle history report scams

 

[Gone in 60]

Decarmine is right...

When I listed my BMW on CycleTrader and Craig's, a few responders said "I'd really like to come see your bike. Do you have a VIN report? If you don't, you can purchase one here: www .xyz.com"

Luckily, that was the only scam that came my way. Two guys came to look at the bike, and the second one snapped it up quickly. Hopefully you'll have good luck. Shoot, this guy was buying up Beemers, maybe he'll find you too!

 

[LongRanger_imp]

Requesting a Carfax on a 20+ year old motorcycle makes no sense. What are they hoping to discover at this point?

 

[Lord Popgun]

LR, Here is how the scam works: BBB Scam Alert: Beware of vehicle history report scams

 

[GoldOxide_imp]

Similar scams are employed for items other than vehicles.

Expensive furniture is an example.

 

[Gone in 60]

Requesting a Carfax on a 20+ year old motorcycle makes no sense. What are they hoping to discover at this point?

They're hoping to discover ten or twenty bucks in your wallet to pay for one of their VIN reports.

 

[LongRanger_imp]

That’s my point. If someone requested a Carfax for this bike, it’d be fairly obvious (to me at least) that it’d be a scam. I’d simply ask them why they needed it and would be very curious how they’d respond. You only get scammed if you fall for it.

 

[Guth_imp]

Selling things is rarely a fun experience as far as I'm concerned. At the end of the day, if you have something for sale be it a motorcycle or whatever and are listing it a fair price (not overpriced, not a giveaway), chances are it will pretty much take care of itself and you can just ignore the scammers.

 

[Gone in 60]

Hey, if they hit everyone who lists a bike with that response, they must get at least enough people to buy a VIN report to make it profitable.

 

[decarmine_imp]

When I was selling one of my bikes I went to one of the scam VIN sites. Buried in the fine print was, if you bought one VIN report, you were actually signing up for a year of access at $xx.xx dollars per month...

 

[GoldOxide_imp]

When I was selling one of my bikes I went to one of the scam VIN sites. Buried in the fine print was, if you bought one VIN report, you were actually signing up for a year of access at $xx.xx dollars per month...

Ooo, ugly.

Good tip.

 

[Charlie Bravo_imp]

I've run into that VIN scam before. I told the guy if he wanted a VIN report, he'll have to buy it. Never heard from again. They're trolling for suckers.

 

[rboe]

I got burned by that scam. Took me a bit to see the light.

Gah!

 

[Cormanus]

Ouch! Commiserations, Rboe.

 

[Blockhead_imp]

I like to scam the scammers. My elderly neighbor was selling a hot tub online and someone tried to use the “I want to buy it but I can’t come look at it right now, I’ll send you extra money blah blah...” trick on him. He almost fell for it. When he started telling me the story I convinced him it was a scam.

We decided to have some fun with it. We told the scammers where and when they could pick up the hot tub and that there was money on the way to them etc, (fake addresses, fake account numbers) all of it false! There were back and forth emails for a couple weeks, setting up logistics that didn’t exist etc, until the scammers got frustrated and finally figured out that THEY were getting scammed.

 

[GoldOxide_imp]

I like to scam the scammers. My elderly neighbor was selling a hot tub online and someone tried to use the “I want to buy it but I can’t come look at it right now, I’ll send you extra money blah blah...” trick on him. He almost fell for it. When he started telling me the story I convinced him it was a scam.

We decided to have some fun with it. We told the scammers where and when they could pick up the hot tub and that there was money on the way to them etc, (fake addresses, fake account numbers) all of it false! There were back and forth emails for a couple weeks, setting up logistics that didn’t exist etc, until the scammers got frustrated and finally figured out that THEY were getting scammed.

Yeah, I've been tempted a few times.

When phone call scammers were a big thing, I once "invested" my time and asked why the caller does this for a "career". Long story short, the call ended with the scam caller sobbing and wishing or planning to go back to school and retrain for a better skillset.

 

[Gone in 60]

I felt sort of bad the last time I sold a vehicle on Craig's. Last year, after my Dad in Law passed away, I cleaned up his car and listed it. It was a low-buck transportation piece, and I got slammed within an hour with about a dozen responses, most I'm sure being auto wholesalers offering low-ball deals. All had a story that either said "I'm looking for a car for my Mom, I'm looking for a car for my Son, I'm looking for a car to make deliveries", or something similar.

I kept deleting the messages, but in the mix was one poor fellow who actually was looking for a car for his son. He kept responding, eventually saying "What can I do to convince you that I'm not a scammer?" When he texted me a picture of money fanned out on a table, I called him. He said his son had been looking for this particular year and color, and was excited to see it. I had to apologize, saying that his message sounded too much like the slew of generic low-ballers who had pummelled me.